Armed with buckets and bailers, hoes and sickles, 100 elderly residents of Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township Old Bridge Landscape Volunteer Association set off from Ox Pen Riverside Park to carry out a clean-up operation upstream and downstream of Dongan Old Bridge. The volunteers first set about removing weeds and cleaning up litter, and then began planting trees, flowers and plants. To date, the group has planted more than 3,000 specimens. The volunteers did not put their feet up during the Lunar New Year holiday period and took turns to patrol the area and water and tend to the plants and trees. Their strenuous efforts have breathed new life into the picturesque environs of the famous Dongan Old Bridge and Ox Pen River.
The association’s president, Wang Yu-lien, says the association was mainly born out of the enthusiasm of association chief executive Chen Su-hsiang and other local residents. Wang says she simply responded to their appeals and formerly established the association on Jan. 20.
Almost all of the association’s volunteers are of the same hue: “gray-haired retirees,” and the number of “younger” over-50-year-olds can be counted on one hand, says Wang, adding that, “Before establishing the association, I had never touched a hoe or a sickle: I was completely clueless about horticulture.”
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Liberty Times 照片:自由時報記者黃美珠
“Everyone clubbed together with the same sense of purpose and community spirit; even though we are using buckets and bailers brought from our homes to do the watering, we feel rich in health and are happy to be helping to make Guansi Township a more beautiful place,” Wang says.
(Liberty Times, translated by Edward Jones)
新竹縣關西鎮一百名退休銀髮族合組「關西鎮古橋景觀志工協會」,大家自己帶著水桶、水瓢、鋤頭、鐮刀等工具,自動自發在東安古橋上、下游的牛欄河親水公園,從除雜草、清垃圾開始,再一棵棵種下樹木、花草,迄今超過三千棵!就連春節也每天有人輪流巡守、澆灌照料,使得本已名聞遐邇的東安古橋、牛欄河畔風光,因為他們的熱血和汗水而更加閃耀。
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Liberty Times 照片:自由時報黃美珠
協會理事長王玉蓮說,這個志工團主要是由執行長陳素香等熱心鄉親所發起,她只是響應號召,於今年一月二十日正式成立協會。
她說,這個協會成員清一色都是退休後的銀髮族,只有屈指可數是年過半百的「年輕人」。在加入前,她沒拿過鋤頭、鐮刀,對種樹種花更是一無所知。
大家因為有志一同而聚在一起,即便是替花草樹木澆水,用的都是從自己家帶去的水桶、水瓢,但依舊開心能因此「賺健康」、「賺到更美麗的關西」!
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Liberty Times 照片:自由時報黃美珠
(自由時報記者黃美珠)
A: Wow, three Taiwanese restaurants just won the 2024 “Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants” awards. B: Awesome! Which three restaurants? A: Taipei’s Logy at No. 22 and MUME at No. 34, and Taichung’s JL Studio at No. 33. B: Actually, there are many more great establishments in Taipei. How about other Asian cities? A: Singapore claimed nine spots this year, making it Asia’s new “food capital.” A: 2024「亞洲50最佳餐廳」名單揭曉了,台灣有3家餐廳上榜。 B: 好厲害,哪3家? A: 台北的Logy和MUME分獲第22和34名,台中的JL Studio獲第33名! B: 其實台北還有很多好餐廳,那其他的亞洲城市呢? A: 新加坡今年入選9家,可說是亞洲美食之都。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Let’s explore another delicacy primarily known to Tainan locals: floating milkfish in thick soup. Despite its peculiar name, this dish is another Tainan specialty that showcases the popularity of milkfish, which is made into fish paste and served in thick soup. Unlike the version with tutuo fish, which also adds other ingredients to its thick soup, the floating milkfish version primarily features the “floating fish” itself in its thick soup, ensuring that the fish paste remains the star of the dish. 讓我們來探索另一道台南人熟悉的美食:浮水魚羹。這道菜名奇特的美食,再再展現了台南虱目魚料理的多樣。浮水魚羹是用虱目魚漿做成的羹品,雖然和𩵚魠魚羹一樣是羹湯,但不像𩵚魠魚羹會在湯中加入其他食材,而是讓虱目魚漿成為這道料理的主角。 peculiar (adj.) 獨特的;古怪的 The belly of a milkfish is considered the most
The practice of freezing embryos as part of in vitro fertilization (IVF) was thrown into chaos in Alabama this year, when the state supreme court ruled that such embryos should be considered children, exposing clinics to wrongful death claims in the event they are destroyed in the thawing process. In 2021, more than 80 percent of US IVF procedures involved the transfer of frozen embryos, according to a recent report by the US Department of Health and Human Services. HOW IS EMBRYO FREEZING USED IN IVF? IVF uses high doses of hormones to stimulate ovaries to produce as many eggs as possible. Once
A situation puzzle is a game in which one person describes a scenario and asks the players to explain it. The situation is deliberately lacking in details, but the players may acquire more information by asking questions — however, these can only be answered with “yes” or “no.” A player wins by describing the approximate events that led up to the situation. To do so, they must use a blend of logical and lateral thinking. A famous example of this is sometimes known as “Turtle Soup.” Here’s the riddle: “A man in a restaurant orders turtle soup, tastes it